So far in my first two “what’s makes Florida Special” instalments have written about the fantastic weather and climate and the friendly and helpfulness of the Floridians but in this instalment I am going to tell you about the service.
Service in most parts of the USA is incredible and obviously this is part of the job and if you go to eat somewhere and the service is poor then you’re expected to complain, (in a nice way of course) by not complaining about poor service they actually feel you are doing them an injustice as they cannot rectify any faults.
One of our first experiences of service beyond the call of duty was on an early trip to TGI Fridays, we had taken our younger son along and he would be around eight or nine years old
A very friendly waitress came and introduced herself and left us with menu’s and drinks whilst we decided what we wanted to order, as our son liked plain food but not burgers and so he found it a little difficult to choose a meal.
Some time went by and eventually he ordered a chicken pasta dish with a balsamic dressing sauce, time went by and we enjoyed some great Nacho’s to share as a starter before the main course or Entrée arrived.
The main courses looked great when they arrived and my wife and I tucked into the food whole heartedly, my Jack Daniels steak was superb but our young son only nibbled on parts of his food. I asked him what was wrong and he said he didn’t like the tastes of the sauce that covered his food, our waitress soon noticed that out young son was not tucking into his food like everyone else and come over and asked if there was a problem
We explained that he simply didn’t like the sauce; she talked to him and asked if he would like something else, remember he was only nine years old but she was so very good at dealing with him and eventually suggested a nice plain Spaghetti Bolognese which arrived very shortly
Now he liked this much better and was soon woofing it down, a short time after the manager came across and apologised profusely, we pointed out it was not the restaurants fault it was ours as he had simply made a wrong choice. The manager was very apologetic and told us that we would not be charged for our son’s meal, “no” we said you must charge us he didn’t eat the chicken dish but has eaten the Spaghetti Bolognese but the manager was insistent and when we came to pay the bill we were not charged for our son’s meal.
Now this is real service! I have been to TGI’s in the UK but have never had service anywhere near this; the final outcome was that this one act of friendly service has left us lifelong fans of TGI’s
This sort of service can be found all over Florida and this is yet another reason why Florida is special to me.
Service in most parts of the USA is incredible and obviously this is part of the job and if you go to eat somewhere and the service is poor then you’re expected to complain, (in a nice way of course) by not complaining about poor service they actually feel you are doing them an injustice as they cannot rectify any faults.
One of our first experiences of service beyond the call of duty was on an early trip to TGI Fridays, we had taken our younger son along and he would be around eight or nine years old
A very friendly waitress came and introduced herself and left us with menu’s and drinks whilst we decided what we wanted to order, as our son liked plain food but not burgers and so he found it a little difficult to choose a meal.
Some time went by and eventually he ordered a chicken pasta dish with a balsamic dressing sauce, time went by and we enjoyed some great Nacho’s to share as a starter before the main course or Entrée arrived.
The main courses looked great when they arrived and my wife and I tucked into the food whole heartedly, my Jack Daniels steak was superb but our young son only nibbled on parts of his food. I asked him what was wrong and he said he didn’t like the tastes of the sauce that covered his food, our waitress soon noticed that out young son was not tucking into his food like everyone else and come over and asked if there was a problem
We explained that he simply didn’t like the sauce; she talked to him and asked if he would like something else, remember he was only nine years old but she was so very good at dealing with him and eventually suggested a nice plain Spaghetti Bolognese which arrived very shortly
Now he liked this much better and was soon woofing it down, a short time after the manager came across and apologised profusely, we pointed out it was not the restaurants fault it was ours as he had simply made a wrong choice. The manager was very apologetic and told us that we would not be charged for our son’s meal, “no” we said you must charge us he didn’t eat the chicken dish but has eaten the Spaghetti Bolognese but the manager was insistent and when we came to pay the bill we were not charged for our son’s meal.
Now this is real service! I have been to TGI’s in the UK but have never had service anywhere near this; the final outcome was that this one act of friendly service has left us lifelong fans of TGI’s
This sort of service can be found all over Florida and this is yet another reason why Florida is special to me.